Baldur's Gate 2 (PC) - 1:11:37 - Dominic Legault

Speed run of Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn in 12 segments completed on October 25 2005. Available in normal, high and low quality.

Author's comments:
Hello folks, I am DAMURDOC and I am here to present you a Speedrun of one of the best game, if not the best game on PC so far in history. I played BG2 for 4 years now, and I'm still playing as you can see. I guess I will never get tired of playing Baldur's gate 2, I'ts like a drug... my drug. When I first discovered SDA I was shocked to see a Baldur's gate speedrun, but no Baldur's gate 2 Speedrun! From that day, I though about speedrunning that game for a while before I decided to actually do it. The reason why I worked so hard to make this work, his to see the dedication of the gamers on speeddemosarchive.com. I wanted to be one of those people.

So here I am now, with a wonderful time below 1:30:00. Some would say BG2 cannot be done under 2 hours, but I proved it was false. I will separate my description in 12 (12 segments) with different possible improvements and also a "Why did i do this" section.

First, I have to say it would be almost impossible to do a single segment. Why you would say? Because Baldur's gate 2 is D&D and D&D& is RANDOM. Anything can happen, some spells might not work sometime they will work, sometime some random monsters will appear at some random place which can be quite troublesome for your run.

I used a sorcerer, I did everything on solo except at the end. Why not a thief? Because I needed haste, knock.... There is no way in hell you can achieve the same speed with a rogue on BG2. And if you doubt my words, just watch the run -_-;;.

If you see me using some weird names to describe monster or spells, it's because I have no idea what the name is in english :P

NOTE:
The run was made on Normal
I used a sorcerer
No patch as been used I am on 1.0
No throne of bhaal
No cheat as been used (duuh!)
I was level 13 when i finished the game

Anyhow, let's start with the fun stuff.

Segment 1

Ok, i make my character, choose a portrait, (don't ask me why but I like this one) I chose My race (human) and the most important thing of all, my class (sorcerer). My alignement was very important because I wanted a particular familiar (see segment 6-8). As for my stats, well the regular.. No CHA or WIS I needed STR (to cary items), CONS (to survive), INT (well.. That's kind of obvious) Each and everyone of my spell play a role in the game, all of them are needed (Except Chromatic orb). The game start, I get rid of imoen, I get the stone as fast as I can, get the golem to open the doors, get the key for the portal kill the portals, escape from the dongeon go to chapter 1 and save. Before the golem go open the door, somehow, I manage to get one of the goblin out of the way which able me to go forward with the golem, don't ask me how I did that. I get new spells, summon the spiders and destroy the portals. Note that i know all the texts by heart, so i skip the conversations at lightning speed.

Possible Improvements.
- More speed to destroy the portals? (I'm not sure, I was very fast but there is alwais a way)

That's all I can think of.

Segment 2

The goal here is to get 15 000 Gold as fast as I can. The best way I found was the Maevar quest. 10 000 of reward for the quest and some items, for a total or 16 000 something, perfect! The reason why this quest is fast, is because of a particular glitch. The drawer in maevars room can be opened without the key, by using the spell Knock. As soon as I get the paper, i go kill maever, A couple of fireballs and he is down. Everything is in order, I sell everything and go see my little friend bodhi (Note that you can't do bodhi's quests with a rogue, you would have to help the shadow thiefs).

Possible Improvements.
- I only had to trow 3 fireball to kill maevar, but I used 4. (cost me 5-6 seconds)

Segment 3

I go see mook, get the box and give it to bodhi as fast as i can. After that, I have the choice to take 1 out of 2 quests. The Hero quest or the bandit. I decided to be a "Hero" and rescue some midget in the thief guild. Since he is in the thief guild and the third quest is to go kill the thief guild, why not kill 2 birds with one stone (is it the correct expression....) and do the two quests. go get the key from gaeLAME.

Possible Improvements.
_ The INT potions are not needed... I use them to detect the secret doors faster but to keep my sanity (You have to be REALLY lucky to detect those doors), I decided to get them.
- To kill gaelan, with some luck you can kill him faster, but somehow, he decided to drink potions.

Segment 4

For those who are wondering, the fireball i trew was to kill the midget i was supposed to save. Killing him is faster, you don't really have to rescue him, except if you wan't experience that is, but I'm here to be fast, not to get experience! I manage to survive the different traps, I evade the pyramid trap and run for my life. I kill the wizard with some spiders and get the key to Aran linvail. Note that the wizard is circled with allies (priests and guards) sometimes and sometimes is not. Go go random.

Possible Improvements.
- Detect the door faster
- My spiders stopped at one point during the wizard fight, stole me seconds.
- One of the lame glitch happened, took me 3 try to save the game after this, quite troublesome. Took me 10 seconds.

Segment 5

At the start, I dont have a choice, I have to sleep... In the game, I only get 3 dreams, 1 out of the 3 dreams at the start, 1 to get the Slayer, 1 after the underdark. So I don't have a choice but to get this one, I tryed to sleep the less i could. I take 2 INT potions, detect the door to Aran and it's the beggining of the long and wonderful journey of CLOUD KILL abuse. I summon some cloud kills and block aran in it. Get the stuff i need and go see bodhi. Proceed to the next chapter and save.

Possible Improvements.
- I took too much time before casting haste, took 3-4 seconds.à

Segment 6

This is where my familiar become handy, to get to the mansion i need the statue and There is no way i'm trying my luck against this mage. So i use a fast and easy way, steal the statue! I pop my familiar and steal what i need, get into the mansion, and attack one of the crazy fools. Easy stuff, i get rid of the ... well whatever that is.. the sarevock "bhaal apparition". I choose to remove some WIS since i need it so much. once that's done, I save!

Possible improvements.
-I lost my haste in the mansion which slows me down a bit 2-3 seconds.

Segment 7

The secret door is easy to detect. I have a special way of placing my cloud kills to defeat the kobolds so it was easy and fast. To get rid of the vampire, I go to the library and get 2 very, very important scrolls. I use finger of death on the vampire and continu. I pass the minotors, i let the trolls see me on purpose because one of them block the way. I get a bit far when i transform into the slayer so the vampires don't steal my health. I get the second horn, open the door. I use the second very important scroll to stun the mushroom before he cast his deadly childrens (they use chaos... very bad). Once im in the questioning room I fail the first answer on purpose so I dont have to fight trolls (how would i kill trolls anyway). I dont have a choice but to be stunned by the sharks but cloud kill abuse save me anyhow. I wait until I can control my character, sleep and voila!

Possible improvements.
- Maybe the part where I am stunned can be avoided, but I do not know how.

Segment 8

I kill lonk without using too much fireballs (I need to keep some of my spells). I am confident that the way I got rid of Irenicus was the fastest way possible. I get out of the battlefield and take the left side, if i go to the right, an army of rogues will block the way and make me lose alot of time. I obviously refuse to go with Saemon the crook. I get to key for the portal, and in the underdark i go! I sleep, get my slayer and my spells and go north. The reason why i travel to the left before getting the familiar out is because of a lame glitch bioware fail to fix. If i summon my familiar in the beggining of the underdark, he will disapear and be lost in space. Soooo, i need to keep him with me. I go steal the jewel and go see the lovely silver dragon. Once I am a drow, i go steal the eggs right away, i just attack the guard and the door magicaly open (If life was that easy!). The dragon open the big door for me, and out I go.

Possible improvements.
- Messed up really bad when i tryed to get trough the big door, it seem the drows really wanted to go with me... they blocked me and made me loose numerous seconds.

Segment 9

I get drizzt to help me, go to the cimetary and evade the vampires with the potion i took from gaelon bail :P. The reason why i kill the vampire at the start, it's because this "special" vampire was needed so the door to bodhi could open. Note that i stay really far from the vampires so they don't cast me any domination spells... this made me restart the segment alot of time. I rehaste drizzt once im near bodhi and let him lose so he can do the dirty job for me. But one thing is sure, I have to use the death spell or drizzt is doomed (How can drizzt die to such pity undeads, R.A Salvator should teach bioware some lesson). I go sell my stuff Buy a Stop time and a wish scroll, buy wisdom potions and get Jan the midget.

Possible improvements.
- I should have bought the wisdom potions the same time that I bought the INT potions...

Segment 10

This is where the action begins, i go kill the dragon, get the special items. Before doing that, i get jan out of the team to save time (don't need the midget yet). Once that is done, i get jan back, summong the great lillifane and save in front of the second Irenicus battle.

Possible improvements.
- Buying and selling before Irenicus wasn't needed at all, this made me lose some time.

Segment 11

This part is where my experience with warcraft 3 was useful. I have to "Micro" my characters to kill those elementals. Funny how I killed a dragon and elementals are a problem. I get 1 trap near Irenicus so he don't cast Time Stop (Smart). To kill Irenicus.. Easy! 3-4 cloud kill and it's done! Go Cloud kill!

Possible Improvements.
- More speed? Even if my speed was good enought there is alwais a way.

Segment 12

Final segment but not the least. I kill Sarevock, get the other tears of bhaal, get the midget to set some trap and it's done.

Possible Improvements.
- Be more lucky with the traps
- Don't have to kill the dragon.

There we go folks, all done. I hope you will enjoy it as much as i did. People asked me for a Throne of bhaal speedrun, I do not know if I will do it or not, but if I do one, it will be on a new Character After the Irenicus battle on the new TOB story. I was thinking of doing a Warcraft 3 speedrun myself since I played this game for years but we will see.

I think this run could be improved a bit, if somebody try to beat it, it will be with a sorcerer, and the person will have to use the same exact tricks,paths and class i used, no question about it.

I want to thank:
- My brother maxime for different infos, and support.
Bioware for making this masterpiece
- Ekarderif for reviewing, hosting.
- Mike Uyama and others because the hard work put in his speedrun gave me the will to do what i had to do.
- My computer, for being powerful enought to record this run.